J.P. Crawford led off the bottom of the 15th inning with a single before Detroit relief pitcher Tommy Kahnle hit Randy Arozarena with a pitch.<\/p>\n
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The runners advanced on Cal Raleigh\u2019s fly out and after Julio Rodriguez was intentionally walked, Polanco came to the plate and laced a single to right field that closed out the longest winner-take-all game in MLB playoff history and sent the crowd at Seattle\u2019s T-Mobile Park into a frenzy.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was trying to get a good pitch to hit, trying to drive it to the middle,\u201d Polanco said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know we played a long game, but this team never gave up.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mariners manager Dan Wilson called it \u201can incredible ballgame from top to bottom.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t even know where to begin to try to recap all the heroic efforts that went into today, from one guy to the next,\u201d Wilson said.<\/p>\n
SEATTLE, WASHINGTON – OCTOBER 10: Jorge Polanco #7 of the Seattle Mariners celebrates after hitting the game-winning RBI single during the fifteenth inning against the Detroit Tigers to win game five of the American League Division Series at T-Mobile Park on October 10, 2025 in Seattle, Washington. (Photo by Steph Chambers\/Getty Images)Source: Getty Images<\/p>\n
The Mariners had opened the scoring with one run in the bottom of the second when Josh Naylor smacked a double off Skubal, stole third and scored on Mitch Garver\u2019s sacrifice fly.<\/p>\n
Skubal struck out the next seven batters he faced — a playoff record. He departed after six innings with 13 strikeouts. He retired the last 14 batters he faced, including a strikeout of Mariners catcher Raleigh, who led the major leagues with 60 home runs this season.<\/p>\n
Mariners starting pitcher George Kirby pitched five scoreless innings, striking out six.<\/p>\n
Kirby was lifted after Javier Baez doubled to open the sixth and reliever Gabe Speier immediately gave up a towering two-run homer to Kerry Carpenter that put the Tigers up 2-1.<\/p>\n
The Mariners clawed back a run in the seventh on a single from pinch-hitter Leo Rivas — in his first post-season at-bat on his 28th birthday.<\/p>\n
It would take another eight innings to settle it as both teams\u2019 bullpens kept the game balanced on a knife-edge.<\/p>\n
The Mariners used six relief pitchers — including regular starters Logan Gilbert and Luis Castillo.<\/p>\n
The seven relievers used by Detroit included regular starter Jack Flaherty.<\/p>\n
Blue Jays in first ALCS since 2016 | 01:06<\/p>\n
\u201cIt makes me a little emotional because these guys are unbelievable, just how much they fought tonight,\u201d Wilson said.<\/p>\n
Gilbert gave up back to-back singles to Zach McKinstry and Dillon Dingler to open the 12th inning but Eduard Bazardo took over on the mound and worked out of a bases-loaded jam.<\/p>\n
The Mariners put two runners on with none out in the bottom of the 12th but after Crawford\u2019s fly out Detroit pitcher Keider Montero induced Arozarena to hit into a double play.<\/p>\n
After Bazardo retired three straight in the top of the 13th, Detroit sent Flaherty to the mound.<\/p>\n
Seattle stranded two runners in the bottom of the frame and they went to the 14th — making it the longest winner-take-all matchup in postseason history.<\/p>\n
Dillon Dingler belted a one-out double in the top of the 14th but the Tigers couldn\u2019t capitalise and Castillo came in to record the final out.<\/p>\n
Flaherty walked Victor Robles with two out in the bottom of the 14th, but Robles was caught trying to steal second base.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe back half of that game is like a game in itself, you know?\u201d Tigers manager A.J. Hinch said. \u201cAnd we dodged a few bullets, and so did they.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had an incredible game today,\u201d he added. \u201cUnfortunately somebody had to lose and that somebody was us — and it hurts.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jorge Polanco belted the walk-off single in the 15th inning as the Seattle Mariners beat the Detroit Tigers…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":374412,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2288],"tags":[5,2328,2304,4,2305,2303,185],"class_list":{"0":"post-374411","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb-postseason","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-major-league-baseball-playoffs","10":"tag-major-league-baseball-postseason","11":"tag-mlb","12":"tag-mlb-playoffs","13":"tag-mlb-postseason","14":"tag-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/115355557870296212","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/374411","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=374411"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/374411\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/374412"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=374411"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=374411"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=374411"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}